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UK Justice Policy Review: Volume 2

The second in an annual series by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, supported by the Hadley Trust, tracking year-on-year developments in criminal justice and social welfare across the UK.

Combining analysis of the main developments with key data on issues such as spending, staffing and the numbers going through the criminal justice system, UK Justice Policy Review offers an accessible overview of UK-wide developments.

This issue finds that spending on law and order in the UK fell by ten per cent in the first two years of coalition government, a new report published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies today reveals. While the UK was spending £36 bn in real terms on public order and safety in 2009/10, before the coalition government came to power, by 2011/2012 this had fallen to £32.3 bn. In comparison the total UK public sector spend on services fell by 1.4 per cent in the same period.

The report also finds that the spending squeeze set by Westminster was applied differently in different jurisdictions. In England and Wales central government expenditure on criminal justice fell in real terms by 12 per cent between 2009/2010 and 2011/2012. In Scotland it increased by four per cent in the same period.

The number of police officers declined by seven per cent in England and Wales and by nine per cent in Northern Ireland in the first two years of the Coalition, while in Scotland they remained largely unaltered. The numbers of prison staff decreased in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, by 11 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. In Scotland the numbers rose by three per cent.

UK Justice Policy Review is the second in an annual series by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies that tracks year-on-year developments in criminal justice and social welfare across the UK. This second edition concentrates on the period May 2011 to April 2012 and includes:

An overview of policing, courts and legal aid, prisons and probation, and welfare reform during the coalition's second year in power.

Data sections covering who got processed by the criminal justice system following the English riots, criminal justice expenditure, criminal justice staffing, numbers processed by the criminal justice system and trends in social need.